Is there a way to show a 15+ character computer name in AD tools?

HARI

2/6/23, 6:06 AM

I'm currently using a longer than 15 character naming convention and this doesn't display well in Active Directory. I was able to create computer object with more than 15 character in AD, but when I rename a computer which is already in the AD, it only shows the first 15 characters of the computer name. Is there a way to show the full name of computer without trimming it to 15 character in AD name field?

648

0 + 0

windows

active-directory

netbios

Doug Deden

2/6/23, 9:03 PM

Welcome! Can you explain a little bit about how you created a computer object with a longer name. Per https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/windows-server/identity/naming-conventions-for-computer-domain-site-ou, you shouldn't have been able to do that. "Windows doesn't permit computer names that exceed 15 characters."

Score:3

Server

L1ttl3J1m

2/6/23, 11:18 PM

Sorry to say, you're going to have to shorten your naming convention. The maximum length of a computer name in Windows is 15 characters, and there is no way around that.

This is because the maximum length of a netBIOS account name is 16 characters - you can see this on page 10 of the RFC for NetBIOS.

Windows adds a dollar sign $ to the end of a computer account name to distinguish user accounts from computer accounts, which uses up one character, leaving 15 characters as the maximum length of a computer name.

Although you can create a computer object in Active Directory that's longer than 15 characters, the account name of that object will be only the first 15 characters, and that's why the AD tools only shows that many.

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Ryan Bolger

2/7/23, 3:55 AM

It's not entirely true that there's no way around the 15 char sAMAccountName limit. Tools like ADUC and the AD PowerShell module may enforce that limit. But with something like ADSI Edit or just raw LDAP, you can create accounts (both user and computer) with sAMAccountNames up to 20 characters. Beyond that and the domain controller rejects it. But if you use all 20 characters, it also won't have the `$` at the end which will also probably break stuff that make assumptions about computer account naming.

Elon Musk

I sit in a Tesla and translated this thread with Ai:

EN: Is there a way to show a 15+ character computer name in AD tools?

TH: มีวิธีการแสดงชื่อคอมพิวเตอร์ที่มีอักขระมากกว่า 15 ตัวในเครื่องมือ AD หรือไม่

RO: Există o modalitate de a afișa un nume de computer cu peste 15 caractere în instrumentele AD?

RU: Есть ли способ отобразить имя компьютера из 15+ символов в инструментах AD?

VI: Có cách nào để hiển thị tên máy tính hơn 15 ký tự trong các công cụ AD không?

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